The B6290 follows a short section of the original northern end of the Chester-le-Street Bypass, along what was once part of the A1 and later became a branch of the A6127.

Today, it connects the central section of the bypass - today's A167 - to the old Great North Road. The A167 turns off the bypass at the southern end of the B6290 and instead runs northeastwards to meet junction 63 of the A1(M); the two roads meet again at the northern end of the B6290.

Although purpose-built as an arterial route in the 1920s, Park Road North (as the Chester-le-Street Bypass came to be named) quickly attracted residential ribbon development and the B6290 is nowadays subject to a 30 mph speed limit throughout.